Earthdawn: Adventure Log 10 - A Tear for Jaspree

This is the tenth Adventure Log in an ongoing series about Earthdawn.Introduction and Index.

Jaspree is the Passion of nature in Earthdawn, and has grown in importance since the ending of the Scourge. Many Namegivers have turned to Jaspree for help in reviving the corrupted landscape to what it once was, restoring farmlands and forests to support life. In turn, the Passion has aiding in restoring the land to what it once; Barsaive has steadily turned green and seen the bloom of life return in those years. The ideals of Jaspree are care of the land, growth, and love of the wilderness.

Most commonly referred to as "he", I also prefer to associate Jaspree in the form of a windling; in my game each of the Passions has a common Namegiver to be depicted as, when not in the form of the viewer or artist that is. When not a windling, he is invariably shown as half animal and the gender depends on the role - male most commonly for protector and female for nurturer. The common elements associated with Jaspree are farms, flowers, forests, seeds, trees - really, any indication of animals or plants growing and alive. Namegivers are not associated with Jaspree, that is the domain of Garlen.

While the text depicts Jaspree as valuing plants over animals, I prefer to have Jaspree involved in protecting the natural order over just plants. This generally means questors will lead solitary lives away from most other people, perhaps in small and dedicated communities, tending to a particular area and defending it violently from despoiling. They may be sought for advice regarding the land by those who respect their ways. More social questors will be actively involved in communities that owe their existence to the land and rely on the questor to help them ensure that balance is maintained between their needs and the land's needs. Others, generally adepts who have considerably more power, travel to enact Jaspree's will and spread his teachings. All questors prefer peaceful measures, but part of nature is violence and death, which they will not shy from if required.

Adventure Log – 10 A Tear for Jaspree

Recorded By: Jak’Tak the Weaponsmith

Date: 01 Doddul – 22 Doddul, 1506 TH
Group Name: Mismatched Steel

Group Members

Elmod the Nethermancer(1)
Honeysuckle Sunspray the Windmaster(2)
Jak’Tak the Weaponsmith(3)
Sogun the Messenger(4)
Ting the Swordmaster(5)

Ting teaches her students and Jak and Sogun advance in circle. We return to Bartertown. Sogun receives a gift of living armor. Fastoon(6) brings us up to speed on the local color. Bleys(7) has cornered the espagra market(8). He is a clever dwarf. Honeysuckle bought a comfortable hammock. We visit a tailor “Hardly Fitz”. He needs us to check up on a possible espagra supply. The town “Safeway” has a tanner, Urzon. We agree to take the job. A consortium is forming against Bleys. Tol the Warrior gives advice about the scorchers around Ardanyan. Nine days into the journey, we are attacked by a swarm of espagra. We find a clearing with a statue of Jaspree and a white espagra(9). The statue holds a copper bowl, the water gives life(10). We heal the creature’s wounds. Someone approaches. Dwarfs. They go for our espagra, but they are insufficient for the task. They appear to be craftsman – peasants, not bandits. Safeway is a small village in the process of being fortified. The locals are friendly. The tanner’s wife tells he is missing. The tannery is deserted, with signs of a struggle. The innkeeper is friendly and gregarious; Ting and Elmod pump him for information. We track Thom to his home. The apprentice is there. He tells a tale of kidnapping. The local weaponsmith may be involved. He leads us to a farmer, who points us to some woods. Honeysuckle and Sogun are approached by a pretty elf who claims to be trying to get to the bottom of the espagra issue. The white espagra seems to like him. We regroup, then strike off to the forest. We find some dwarfs in the midst of tenderizing(11) an espagra. One challenges us to a duel, and Ting answers. The contest is over in one blow. Beogard’s brother has a plan: to poison small animals, thus weakening the espagra. He kidnapped the tanner to preserve the hides. Beogard leads us to the camp. We speak with the thief, and come to an agreement. The trappers leave and the espagra are released. The tanner is freed, the deal is brokered and we return to Bartertown.(12)

(1) Known associate of Fastoon Julari Makanth Phunkot of Iopos. Trained under Mestoph, if that information is possibly correct.
(2) An uncommon Discipline, particularly in this part of Barsaive, the Windmaster is a community guardian, similar to a Warrior, for Windlings of Glenwood Deep.
(3) Known associate of Maester Bleys and Omasu.
(4) Part of the Ayodhya Liferock and Brother of Omasu by the way obsidimen measure such things.
(5) Known associate of Tarr. Trained under T’Skee “the Magnificent”, Swordmaster of V’Strimon. See cataloged: Adventuring Groups: Exploration: Fourfathers.
(6) Fastoon Julari Makanth Phunkot of Iopos. Nethermancer and representative of the Denairastas within Bartertown. Operates a storefront.
(7) Maester Bleys, origins unknown. Warrior and Weaponsmith, operates the largest Forge within Bartertown. Suspected associate of Tarr.
(8) During this time there was a shortage of espagra skins due to a fashion trend originating in Iopos.
(9) Incredibly rare. Espagra are primarily blue in color, though variations have been found depending on the environment. Of those, green is the most common from jungle areas. White would be from the high mountains and there is rumored to be red around Death's Sea.
(10) Entirely uncertain what this refers to, but bears investigation.
(11) Is this an ork euphemism; investigate.
(12) Received and Edited by Zamirica One-Knee.

*     *     *

This session followed on the heels of what was the low watermark for the campaign and turned things around considerably. The pacing was tight, always something going on, the fights were interesting, and the overall events revealed more about the world as a whole and some nuances. It was an excellent session and it introduced espagra, who are one of my favorite creatures in Earthdawn. During conflict with them, the players realized they may be in over their heads. The final confrontation was diffused through social interaction rather than combat, which was a different kind of victory than this particular group was accustomed.

Events in Bartertown have started to develop and the stage is being set for a conflict that will begin brewing and getting ugly. Much of that is long-term and those events will span a considerable amount of time. Some NPCs get more development and details on the character is shared, along with hints as to the roles they will play in things yet to come. In all, there was a considerable amount of foreshadowing regarding future troubles that our intrepid heroes will face.

The creature trophies that were made for this session were my most ambitious project: espagra scales. To start with, I got variety packs of sequins. Those were sorted by color, including the slightly off colors (which are important). There were four types of espagra that I wanted to make trophies for: blue, green, red and white. The blue espagra used blue and purple sequins; green used green and a turquoise off-color; red were red and gold; and white were white opalescent and silver. The second color was to give some additional depth and variation to the main color, make them look more like something you may find in "nature". The sequins were sewn to cross stitch fabric in an overlapping scale pattern. That was glued to a piece of soft leather then cut out when dried. This gives it a tanned animal skin look and feel and protects the sewing from overhandling (having met my players, this was important). I think the end result looks great, though my players have only gotten blue and green skins thus far. Hopefully, they will meet some red espagra sooner than later - for me, hopefully for me. 

Earthdawn: Adventure Log 08 - Ardanyan's Revenge

This is the eighth Adventure Log in an ongoing series about Earthdawn.Introduction and Index.

Prior to the Scourge, the Mad Passion Raggok was known as Rashomon. At that time his ideals were endurance, leadership, perseverance and tolerance. None of the other Mad Passions were twisted to the degree of Raggok, and now he has the ideals of bitterness, jealousy and vengeance.

Raggok is closest Earthdawn comes to the standard fantasy evil god, often appearing as a large man with a ram's head and open, festering wounds. The common elements associated with him include cold, insects, skeletons and the undead, weapons and wounds. His generally associated powers involve calling up painful memories to torment, inspire hatred, raise the undead and just generally everything you would expect the localized incarnation of evil to do.

His followers, questors, tend to either wallow in debauchery, flaunting their wealth and wasting it, or to lead lives of deprivation and spend all of their resources doing whatever they can to make things worse for those around them. Though there are certainly shades of grey between those extremes, all questors of Raggok have an investment in making the world a generally worse place to be, particularly on a personal level.

Adventure Log – 08 Ardanyan’s Revenge

Recorded By: Elmod of Glenwood Deep

Date: 13 Riag, 1506 TH
Group Name: Mismatched Steel

Group Members

Elmod the Nethermancer(1)
Honeysuckle Sunspray the Windmaster(2)
Jak’Tak the Weaponsmith(3)
Ting the Swordmaster(4)

Ting and I found Honeysuckle and Jak left town quickly. I talked with Issir Faang(5) again and was reinspired to look for the amulet he previously spoke of – the spirits being restless. He also offered an old item in exchange for the amulet expedition.

Ting and I then gallivanted into the forest at night, trying to be quiet, but either way were undisturbed by the forest elves. We found the amulet in an old shallow grave of a humanoid skeleton. We returned, Issir looked and inspected the amulet, and returned it to me. Also he gave me a strange doll. We parted.

Ting made friends with Wuschwusul, a new t’skrang in town, that also came in with an obsidiman Warrior, Caedrus. Ting had fun gallivanting with Wuschwusul.(6)

Returning to have tea with Issir again, I found he had vacated the premises. Asking around I found no one even recognized he had been there until I found a poor willed soul that revealed Issir had fled anonymously and threatened death to those around his house – and he’d left through the West gate (which also did not see him leave). His place vacant, I began to live in his house.

I saw Ting shortly thereafter reporting that our companions, Honeysuckle and Jak’Tak had returned to town. Reconvening with them, we discussed leaving the town to catch up on the poor climate of the elves in town.

On leaving, however, we found that posters identifying us as outlaws (including an obsidiman Honeysuckle and Jak had met outside of town). Guards were promptly alerted to our leaving and we fled through town.

Down an alley. Honeysuckle and Jak’s friend, Titoo, gets our attention to come and follow him and we proceed to follow and hide in a cellar of his.

He discussed how Grankar Eisengeisser was captured by the local elf conglomerate, also looking for the kaer that Honeysuckle and Jak found previously. A hastily devised plan is made to rescue Eisengeisser at the Council Hall’s basement. Ting asks her new friend to try and create a distraction to five us advantage. We set forth with disguises from Titoo.

Explosions are heard in Hangside(7) as we near the Council Hall’s rear gate. Many guards are seen leaving. Honeysuckle flies through the gate and mostly kills the two guards, one of which I finish off with an Astral Spear quite handily. Keys are found as Titoo opens the gate and we proceed through the house.

We meet a group of six guards at the front door. We battle for some time. My foe wounded me most furiously before I eventually ripped his spirit from him finally. The others fought well too. We locked the doors and fought the remaining guards in the cellar and the stairs. Grankar and hooded prisoners were found along with a secret passage in the treasury.

Following the passage since the prison doors could not be opened, we found a shrine to Raggok – a Mad Passion. The passage eventually leads to a passageway with pit traps and a magically concealed passageway to a cave passage to an underground kaer.

The kaer was teeming with life and population. We were still quite haggard from the battle and were noticed as outsiders – not least by some Illusionist that tried to “summon” some Horror-like lizard beings(8). It was enough to let him get away, though he was spotted as associated with the City Council of the city of Ardanyan by his ear clasp.

Finally reaching the Council Hall in Kaer Ardanyan, a dwarf, Joran, lead us to a chamber to talk (in deference to the angry mob alarmed at our entrance and presence). We informed him and his elven counterpart about the end of the Scourge and corruption of their Council members who were corrupted the city of Ardanyan. Leldrin was also additionally responsible for deluding the Kaer by claiming a Horror at the gates to the kaer. Other things about the Questor of Garlen.

We reluctantly agreed to appear in chains to assuage the townspeople’s fears – however somewhere we were also duped as Joran was impersonated by the Illusionist Leldrin (one of the other corrupt leaders of the city of Ardanyan). We chased him to the entrance of the Council Hall, but he escaped with invisibility.

Returning to the commotion in the city of Ardanyan, we revealed the corruption of the Council to the angry mod of townspeople – lead by Ting and eventually backed up by Joran.

Joran bestows us titles of Protector’s of Ardanyan as well as giving us a recently vacated property in Hangside.

Jak sold some of our recent loot to purchase an alchemy lab that I helped prepare. I hope to soon learn additional alchemy skills and knowledges. Other people people improve their skills as well.

Titoo was employed to watch over our new alchemy lab for 50 silver/mo.(9)

(1) Known associate of Fastoon Julari Makanth Phunkot of Iopos. Trained under Mestoph, if that information is possibly correct.
(2) An uncommon Discipline, particularly in this part of Barsaive, the Windmaster is a community guardian, similar to a Warrior, for Windlings of Glenwood Deep.
(3) Known associate of Maester Bleys and Omasu.
(4) Known associate of Tarr. Trained under T’Skee “the Magnificent”, Swordmaster of V’Strimon. See cataloged: Adventuring Groups: Exploration: Fourfathers.
(5) Human Nethermancer residing in Ardanyan.
(6) Wuschwusul, a Swordmaster of Syrtis. Caedrus, a Warrior of Ayodhya. See cataloged: Adventuring Groups: Mercenary: Scale and Stone.
(7) Regarded is as the “nice” part of Ardanyan where the ruling elves and their favorites resided. A forested area on the South side that is elevated and overlooks the rest of Ardanyan.
(8) Leaping Lizards, I believe.
(9) Received and Edited by Zamirica One-Knee.

*     *     *

This session marked the conclusion of the "Ardanyan's Revenge" arc. Some old threads were followed up on and I introduced the first real Thread Item, the Sinistral Puppet. The first half of the session went very well. Returning to Ardanyan and evading the guards was tense, and the wanted posters gave clear hints that all was not right (they were based on characters present during the previous session, not the Group as a whole). Following that was some planning and a daring nighttime raid on the Council Hall. This was exciting and full of action, the pressure was high and the pacing excellent, right up until they started exploring the kaer.

When the characters arrived at the kaer things took a turn for the disgruntled. The immediate actions of the Illusionist within and the responses from the kaer-dwellers served to frustrate some players. Essentially, a lot of the details and importance is lost if you are not actually from the kaer. With that buy-in, the tension can be maintained as there are different repercussions and some investment in how things go (also real fallout from actions outside). The big meeting at the end had something of a deus ex moment where the overall villain makes his escape. Given the significantly differing power levels, he has tricks at his disposal that the players are powerless against, but all he does is make an escape. Regardless of how you approach this adventure (from within or outside), some players will be unhappy with how this plays out.

In all, it is a good introductory adventure and plays best as the starting point of a campaign. The end is somewhat dodgy, but everything leading up to that is good. If nothing else it can be mined for a lot of ideas. The epilogue was fine and the fallout from what happened can keep Ardanyan a simmering issue for quite a while. It holds a lucrative location and will always be a target for scorchers, but now lacks any cohesive leadership. The town is bursting at the seams with new inhabitants and clearly cannot support all of them. Also, the relations between the various factions is approaching an all-time low with the betrayal that was revealed - the money that everyone is fighting over is all gone. I went with a slow burn on the problems as everyone has just gotten out and there is relief, but the tensions and resentment remains. The local adepts largely left to see the world, leaving the city even more vulnerable. Things in Ardanyan are going to get worse before they get any better. Certainly the Protector's will continue in their new responsibilities?

While it wasn't introduced in this session, the group treasury was an element which really helped to bring everyone together. The idea certainly isn't a new one, but many players are hesitant at the idea of one player recording all of the group things and effectively having control over this resource in addition to their own resources. This is not an unfair sentiment. To directly address that, while still providing the benefit of pooled resources, I got a physical box to keep everything in. It's similar to the player boxes, but a little smaller, a different shape (hexagon vs. circle), with hinges and a latch - it is clearly a different box. Since money is tracked by actual coins and nearly all of the other consumables have tokens, everything fits in the box nicely and can be clearly interacted with by each player. This means there is no gatekeeper to the funds, that donating to it is as simple as tossing coins inside, and what is available is readily apparent. The actual results are very different as well. Since it's introduction, most of the players donate nearly everything to the group treasury. One player only donates most of it, and he gets some gentle ribbing, which is still remarkable. The physical construct focuses attention in a way that abstractions do not. For any groups looking to promote more cohesion, I cannot recommend these enough.